There are various known methods and devices for forming crystalline films from various materials. For example, to obtain films of polycrystalline silicon one uses a known process of precipitation from a gas mixture of silane at low pressure. The process is labor-intensive and requires expensive equipment to form isotropic polycrystalline films.
There are also various known methods of epitaxial growth of monocrystalline films, which include gas epitaxy, molecular-beam epitaxy and liquid epitaxy. These processes are technologically labor-intensive and power consuming, requiring expensive equipment; moreover, there are a number of materials for which obtaining anisotropic crystalline films is an unsolved problem.
There are known methods of obtaining anisotropic films from liquid-crystalline (LC) solutions of organic dyes. The methods involve application of liquid-crystalline dye solution onto a substrate, application of external orienting action and drying, which provides films with optical anisotropy.
There is an increasing requirement to improve the parameters of various thin film devices and, accordingly, the characteristics and quality of films used in them. Thus, there is an increase in requirements to the degree of anisotropy and uniformity of characteristics in films functioning as polarizing coatings, orienting, phase-shifting, reflecting, brightening and other optical elements as well as anisotropic films for other purposes. It is necessary to create device elements based on anisotropic films with an increased degree of anisotropy, with a more perfect structure, and which do not contain admixtures or structural defects.